Traditional telephony presents a problem for persons who are who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech-impaired (D-HOH-SI). Communication by telephone requires each party to a telephone call to be able to hear and/or speak to the other party on the call to communicate. For hearing or speech impaired persons, audio communication is difficult or impossible, making telephone communication difficult or impossible.
Early approaches to facilitating telecommunications for D-HOH-SI persons included telecommunications relay service (TRS). TRS services are text-based and enable a D-HOH-SI person to communicate with other people over an existing telecommunications network using devices capable of transmitting and receiving text characters over the telecommunications network. Such devices include the telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) and the teletypewriter (TTY). TRS services were well-suited to the bandwidth limitations of subscriber lines of the time. The bandwidth limitations of subscriber lines were also a limiting factor in the widespread use of video telephony.
The availability of affordable, high-speed packet-switched communications has led to the growth in the use of video relay services (VRS) by D-HOH-SI persons. Using VRS equipment, D-HOH-SI persons can place video calls to communicate between themselves and with hearing individuals using sign language. VRS equipment can be used to talk to others via a sign language interpreter, who uses a conventional telephone at the same time to communicate with the party or parties with whom the D-HOH-SI person wants to communicate. The interpretation flow is normally within the same principal language, such as American Sign Language (ASL) to spoken English or spoken Spanish. For example, Purple Communications, Inc. of Rocklin, Calif., assignee of the present invention, provides English and Spanish ASL video interpreting to individuals who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, or speech impaired and who can communicate via ASL.
In the prior art, VRS systems are set to a default spoken language, such as English or Spanish. When a D-HOH-SI person needs to call a hearing person that speaks a language other than the default language, the person must place a VRS call, wait in the call queue for the next available ASL interpreter, and then, when the next available translator becomes available, ask to be transferred to the call queue of a the different language, where the person must then wait for the next available ASL interpreter in the different language call queue.
For example, if a D-HOH-SI person is fluent in English, that person is likely to place most calls to English speaking hearing persons and will therefore set the default language on the VRS equipment to English. When the D-HOH-SI person makes a VRS call, the VRS equipment places the D-HOH-SI person in the call queue for an English ASL interpreter. However, if the D-HOH-SI person needs to make a call to a hearing person who communicates in Spanish, the VRS equipment still places the D-HOH-SI person in the call queue for an English ASL interpreter, which may require a wait. When an English ASL interpreter answers the call, the D-HOH-SI person must ask the English ASL interpreter to transfer the call to the call queue for a Spanish ASL interpreter, which may require another wait. The wait in the call queue for an English ASL interpreter is unnecessary, which wastes the time of the D-HOH-SI person and other persons behind that person in the call queue.